Auditor general report: Child fitness tax credit report kept hidden

04/28/2015 10:16 EDT
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Updated
08/01/2015 05:59 EDT

CBC

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The Conservative government doesn't know whether its first-time homebuyers tax credit is working as intended, and kept the evaluation of the child fitness tax credit hidden, Canada's auditor general said today in his spring report.

The tax credit for first-time homebuyers' hasn't been evaluated since it was introduced, despite an earlier analysis suggesting there could be some problems with it.

The same criticism applies to a textbook tax credit. Both were introduced by the Conservatives.

Both credits were analyzed before they were introduced, with risks identified. Despite that, "the department does not have complete information to determine if these tax measures are relevant and performing as intended," the report said.

Auditor General Michael Ferguson also concluded that the children's fitness tax credit was analyzed, with an expert panel pointing to a possible problem with that credit's implementation: not all parents could pay fitness membership fees, programs or camps in order to get the credit when they filed their taxes months later.

The panel requested a review after four years, which the department prepared, but that evaluation "was not made public," the report said.

Other findings by the auditor general include:

- People living in remote First Nations in Manitoba and Ontario aren't guaranteed to have access to clinical and client care services, with major health and safety problems at the nursing stations, and only one of the 45 nurses evaluated finishing the five mandatory training courses chosen for the audit.

- The Public Health Agency of Canada and Health Canada aren't doing enough to tackle problems posed by antimicrobial resistance.

- Department of National Defence "failed to fully investigate" two complaints of values and ethics violations in the ombudsman's office, which also had "inadequate controls for financial, contract, and human resource management."

- Correctional Service of Canada officials recommended fewer people for early release in 2013-14 than in 2011-12, even if the offender was assessed as a low risk to reoffend, leading to an additional $91-million annual cost.

Ferguson's audit looked at a number of issues, including "tax expenditures" — credits and deductions used to promote specific policy objectives. These include the targeted tax deductions and credits known as boutique tax cuts, a complicated series of measures the Conservatives prefer to target specific groups of Canadians.

The audit also found the Department of Finance doesn't give Parliament enough information to allow proper oversight of tax expenditures.

It found information, like future cost projections, which is available for other spending, isn't available for tax expenditures.

The Department of Finance doesn't include "valuable information" that's available in other parts of the world, like the number of beneficiaries — though that is sometimes provided by the Canada Revenue Agency — or consolidated information about the purpose of the policy.

This is in contrast to how government departments are required to account for other spending. Countries like France and Australia, according to the auditor general, have reports that:

- Describe the tax measures.

- Discuss its purpose, future cost and number of beneficiaries.

- Link it to other spending programs.

"We believe that details such as these could improve the quality and completeness of the reporting by the Department of Finance Canada," Ferguson wrote.